Changed from fat 32 to Nfts and can't access anything

[Guest]

I just purchased another copy of Windows XP Pro to put on
my old computer for my granddaughter. After installing
which went well decided to change format to the nfts like
have on this computer. It said it would take effect next
time I started computer. Well when I did all I get is the
black screen with all the info on computer and goes to
checking A ok and then checking IDE and then it just
hangs there. When turned on the CD Rom and DVD and A
floppy drive light all come on and work as does the red
light for hard drive. When it gets where it stops the
hard drive light stays on but doesn't blink like normal.
I have tried to use the F8 key to go to safe mode and no
way can I do it. Would appreciate any help you can give.
Thanks, Virginia

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Virginia,

Sounds almost like a corrupted file system. Boot the WinXP CD, load the
Recovery Console, run chkdsk C: /r from the prompt.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[mb]

-----Original Message-----
I just purchased another copy of Windows XP Pro to put on
my old computer for my granddaughter. After installing
which went well decided to change format to the nfts like
have on this computer. It said it would take effect next
time I started computer. Well when I did all I get is the
black screen with all the info on computer and goes to
checking A ok and then checking IDE and then it just
hangs there. When turned on the CD Rom and DVD and A
floppy drive light all come on and work as does the red
light for hard drive. When it gets where it stops the
hard drive light stays on but doesn't blink like normal.
I have tried to use the F8 key to go to safe mode and no
way can I do it. Would appreciate any help you can give.
Thanks, Virginia
.

Although it seems that your issue stemmed from your
conversion to NTFS, I believe that you have a hardware
issue. The ONLY thing that you can deduce from the fact
that the lights on your cd rom, dvd, floppy drive and
hard drive come on is that the devices do receive power
from their connections to the power supply in the PC.

Since you mentioned that the PC hangs during the portion
of POST that checks the function of the IDE controllers
and the availability of the devices that are connected to
them, i.e. cd rom and hard drive, the possible problems
are damaged IDE controllers, damaged motherboard, damaged
or disconnected IDE data cables, damaged or misconfigured
BIOS or misconfigured IDE devices.

If the PC has been working the likelihood of
misconfigured IDE devices is close to none. If you or
someone else have not changed the BIOS settings, a
misconfigured BIOS is not likely the issue either.

If you do not have PC hardware experience, meaning having
the ability to open the PC and work on the internal
components or knowledge of your computer's BIOS, it is
best to take the PC to a computer repairman.

The following link may be helpful in double checking to
see if you can access the hard drive and cd rom drives by
booting the PC from the floppy drive. Booting the PC
from the floppy drive instead of the hard drive may prove
to be useful in diagnosing your issue but probably will
not help to fix it, considering the issue you have.

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

I suggest using either the link for XP Pro or XP SP1
Pro. If you did a clean install of Windows XP or
upgraded from a previous version of Windows, most likely
you need to use XP Pro. If you installed Service Pack 1
for Windows XP after you installed Windows XP, use the
link for XP SP1 Pro. You may even be able to use the
Windows 98 boot disk if the NTFS conversion did not
complete, but there is no way of knowing if the
conversion completed at this point.

Again, I strongly believe that the issue has nothing to
do with NTFS since the PC cannot get past the point where
it detects the presence of the hard drive.